The starter died on my 03 Odyssey last Saturday. AAA towed it home for me, and today, a mobile mechanic came out to my house and installed a new starter.

I called Honda on Saturday to see about a proper replacement starter. They wanted $416 for the part (with a $30 core charge). I came home and dialed up a Denso starter on Amazon: $128. And, I had a $20 credit, so the price went down to $108. I went ahead and paid the extra $10 to get it here a day early. James arrived this evening around 6:00pm to install it. He worked into the dark and charged me $160 for the labor. I paid him $200. So, all in all, I was without the van for three days, but I ended up paying less for the entire repair than Honda wanted to charge for the part alone. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Check out the work light attached to the hood. It’s an LED light that is designed to be mounted on a floor stand. He retrofitted a large magnet to the mounting bracket, sort of like one of those old refrigerator magnet hooks your grandma had. Brilliant.